Canadian True Crime - 45 Sara and Taliyah

Episode Date: May 1, 2019

CALGARY, ALBERTA - In 2016, a single mother failed to drop off her 5 year old daughter at daycare, and from there began a family's worst nightmare. Learn more about:True Crime Podcast Festival | Chicago, July 13True Crime Podcasts - Live in Toronto | Toronto, August 18 (tickets coming soon!)Unresolved Podcast  Want to support my sponsors? Here's where the discount codes are:www.canadiantruecrime.ca/sponsorsCredits:Research and writing: Charlie WorrollNarration, music arrangement, audio production: Kristi LeeAudio editing: Erik KrosbyDisclaimer voiced by the host of Beyond Bizarre True Crime Other credits and sources can be found on the page for this episode at www.canadiantruecrime.ca/episodesSupport the show. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This podcast contains course language, adult themes, and content of a violent and disturbing nature. Listener discretion is advised. Hi everyone. I just wanted to tell you about the two events I'll be participating in this summer in Chicago and Toronto. First is the True Crime Podcast Festival. It's on Saturday July 13th at the Marriott downtown, or Marriott, as the North Americans say it, right on the magnificent mile. There are over 80 True Crime podcasters coming, including the vanished, caught junkie, the fall line, the generation Y, already gone, impact statement, and lots, lots more. This is a full day event and gives you a chance to meet your favourite podcasters in a large-scale meet and greet, with several panel discussions and live episodes too. And one of those live episodes is actually me. I will be telling a Canadian crime crossover with Robin Warder from The Trail Went Cold.

Almost 400 people have bought tickets so far, so it's going to be a good one. Again, it's the True Crime Podcast Festival and it's on Saturday July 13th, 2019. To find out more, head to truecrimepodcastfestival.com or look for it on social media. And the second event this summer is a live show in Toronto on Sunday August 18th from 2-5pm. It'll be me, Jordan from Nighttime, Robin from The Trail Went Cold, and we'll be joined again by Nina from Already Gone. This year we're also super excited to have Aaron from The Generation Y coming, as well as some more special guests yet to be announced. This event is called True Crime Podcasts Live in Toronto and it's going to be at The Royal Cinema, a proper theatre where you can all get a nice, comfy seat and there'll be a meet and greet too. Tickets are on sale right now.

The link is in the show notes, CanadianTrueCrime.ca under news or you can go to The Royal Cinema's website. Now onto today's episode. It is another Calgary case. That wasn't intentional, it's just the way it worked out. I also wanted to give you an additional content warning. This episode does include a crime committed against a child. It's not sexual in nature. On the morning of Monday, July 11, 2016, 34-year-old Sarah Bailey failed to drop off her 5-year-old daughter Talia Marsman at daycare. Sarah's best friend, who worked at the daycare, glanced at the clock wondering where Sarah was. At around 10.30pm, she knew something had to be wrong because Sarah's shift at Chili's Grill & Bar at the Calgary Airport would have already started.

She tried to call Sarah repeatedly but she couldn't get an answer. She called the restaurant. Sarah never showed up for her shift. So Sarah's friend called the family to see if they knew anything. They headed over to the basement apartment where Sarah and Talia lived. And this was the beginning of the family's worst nightmare. This is Christy and you're listening to Canadian True Crime, Episode 45. Sarah's aunt and uncle, Marilyn and Scott Hamilton, arrived at the basement apartment. They noticed Sarah's car was gone from in front of the house.

And they were able to walk right into the house since the door was unlocked. They called out for Sarah and Talia but received no response. They walked through the apartment seeing that things looked mostly in place. Sarah's purse and wallet were there though, which was a concern to them. There is no way she would have driven off without her wallet. But her cell phone was nowhere to be found. So they called the police to report Sarah and 5-year-old Talia missing. Constable Bradley Nyker Luke met Marilyn and Scott at Sarah's apartment for a welfare check.

As he searched the apartment, he noted the same things that Scott and Marilyn had noted. There was no sign of a break-in or struggle. Except for the wallet being left behind, it looked as though the pair had gotten up, readied themselves for the day and left. There was a damp towel hanging in the bathroom, indicating that someone had taken a shower earlier. There was also a can of red bull on the kitchen counter. Friends and family would later say a morning red bull was part of Sarah's get-up-and-go routine. Constable Nyker Luke reported back that there was nothing to be found at the home.

He'd spoken with some neighbours, they'd seen nothing. He then called Talia's father, Colin Marsman, who was estranged from Sarah. Colin said he'd talked to Talia on FaceTime the night before, when she excitedly called to tell him about a loose tooth. That was in the evening, just after 6pm, and they spoke for less than 10 minutes. And that seemed to be the last time that anyone had heard from either Sarah or Talia. Constable Nyker Luke continued the rest of his shift, but he couldn't stop thinking about the missing mother and daughter.

Nothing pointed towards anything nefarious, but it wasn't sitting right with him. So at about 8pm, he returned to Sarah's apartment with her family to do another walkthrough, a double check. Sarah's car was still not back. The officer put on gloves before his more thorough search. His hope was that he would find a planner, calendar, ticket stub or anything that would point to where the pair had gone. He looked through drawers, into cabinets, and even between the mattresses. When he was in Talia's room, he opened the closet door

and saw the little girl's clothes hamper full of clothes. He grabbed the hamper to move it out of the way, and it wouldn't move. It was much heavier than a hamper of clothes should be. When he removed the first layer of clothes of the hamper, he saw two feet. They were cold and waxy to the touch. Sarah's aunt heard him gasp and yell, don't come in here. And she knew that something was very, very wrong. The constable had found the body of Sarah Bailey.

But where was 5-year-old Talia? Sarah Bailey was a 34-year-old single mother in Calgary, Alberta. Her daughter, Talia Marsman, had inherited her mother's bubbly and upbeat personality. It's no wonder the two were nearly inseparable, and Sarah had made the transition to motherhood easily. Talia was everything to her, and it showed in her joy and confidence. Sarah had split up with Colin Marsman, Talia's father, after a tumultuous relationship. There were accusations of domestic violence, both reported to police and not. One that was reported occurred on February the 1st, 2015, about a year and a half before

Sarah's body was found. Colin and Sarah were in the middle of an argument when Sarah attempted to call the police. Colin prevented her from using her cell phone to call for help, so he was charged with unlawful confinement and intimidation. He agreed to a peace bond. A peace bond is essentially a deferred prosecution. If Colin agreed to certain terms and was not charged with any additional criminal offences for a year, the charges would be withdrawn. Those terms included counselling, and he was ordered not to contact Sarah except by text, and those text messages were only allowed if they were to facilitate his visits with Talia. Aside from this criminal action, the couple was in and out of court over custody and child support.

Colin had fallen $8,000 in arrears between 2015 and 2016, and that was money that Sarah desperately needed. She was making less than $20,000 a year at Chili's, and her family often had to pitch in to help Sarah make ends meet. She and Talia even lived with Sarah's brother for a period while they tried to get back on their feet. It was only in May of 2016, two months before they went missing, that Sarah and Talia were able to move into the new apartment on their own. Sarah was thrilled to be able to provide Talia with a stable home in a residential neighbourhood in Calgary. Of course, after Sarah's body was found inside the home, this safe haven for the pair was declared a crime scene. When Sarah's body was taken out of

the clothes hamper, investigators were startled to see duct tape wrapped around her face and neck. Her wrists were also bound with the tape. Some of her injuries were immediately apparent. She had a number of bruises on her stomach and back. It was clear she'd been badly beaten before she was killed. With Sarah having suffered such a brutal attack, finding her daughter Talia became an urgent matter. When a complete search of the home and the immediate area did not lead to her discovery, a province-wide amber alert was issued in the early morning hours of July 12th. Later that day, Sarah's aunt and uncle Scott and Marilyn Hamilton made an emotional plea to the public. We're here today and holding a press conference. On behalf of Sarah Bailey,

we've lost a niece, a sister, a daughter and a mother within the last 12 hours. God rest your soul. We're also here to plead to those who've taken Talia Lee Marsman, Sarah's daughter. Please return her. We love her, we miss her, and we want her back. Sarah was a beautiful young woman who was single-handedly pretty much raising her daughter and we love her and we miss her. From the beginning, investigators were confident that the perpetrator of this crime was known to Sarah. There were no signs of a break-in or signs of a struggle at the scene. This was someone who caught Sarah with her guard down. This was someone Sarah had opened the door for and invited in.

With the contentious relationship between Sarah and Talia's father, Colin, he was immediately on the radar. Investigators said from the beginning that they were in contact with him and that he was cooperating fully. Two days after Sarah had been found, he issued a written statement to the media asking anyone who knew where Talia was to come forward. Investigators were working against the clock and they knew it. In one of the largest studies on child abduction murders, it was determined that in 76% of cases of missing children who were later found deceased, the child was killed within the first three hours of the abduction. In 88.5% of the cases, the child ended up dead within 24 hours.

This research was initially conducted in the 1990s, but when additional cases were added to the data in the years after, these statistics largely stayed the same. CCTV footage was examined for clues. A local restaurant caught Sarah and Talia on camera around 5.30 the night before the murders and then Talia FaceTimed with her father to tell him about her loose tooth at around six. With this timeline, they knew that Talia had been missing for as little as eight hours before the police were called, but possibly as many as 26 hours. This timeline would be narrowed further when a patrolman found Sarah's white Ford Fusion shortly after the amber alert was issued. The car was parked just a few streets away from her house. Local residents were asked

if they'd seen anything in relation to the car. One neighbour told police that he and his wife saw the car on the day of the murder, and what's more, they saw Talia get out of it. Retired couple Douglas Jessen and his wife, Shari, lived just around the corner from Sarah, and on the day that her body was found, they were eating lunch by their front window. As they were eating, they saw a person they described as a stocky black man drive up in a white car. He and a little girl got out of the car, crossed the street, and then got into a gray car that had been parked on the street earlier. The little girl, who was wearing red rain boots with white polka dots, got into the back seat. The man put a red suitcase he was carrying into

the car with the little girl. He then got in and quickly drove away. What stood out to the couple was that the little girl appeared to have been crying. This sighting led investigators to gather all camera footage they could of the area. This was a residential area without street cameras, but they were able to pull the security footage from city buses as well as the dash cam video from cabs around Sarah's home and the area that her car was found. Also, one of the Jessen's neighbors had two home security cameras. Through analysis of all the footage, the events of that day began to come into focus. The analysis is in depth and complicated, so I'll summarize it for you. Sarah's car, the white Ford Fusion,

was captured on camera parked in front of her house in the morning. Sometime before 8.45, a gray Dodge Charger parked just around the corner from her house. Less than two hours later, footage captured the area where Sarah's car was parked, but it was now gone. The Charger was still parked around the corner. That was at 10.30 a.m. Just after noon, both cars were captured in a new location a few streets away, across from the home of the Jessens. The Charger was seen first and then a few minutes later, Sarah's car was seen, the white Ford Fusion. Then, an hour later, at around 1.30 p.m., the Dodge Charger is seen driving away. Sarah's white Fusion stayed parked there until it was

located by a patrolman. Now, it may sound like there must be two people involved in moving these cars. No driver was seen on the footage, so it can't be definitively established how many people were involved. But it was possible that this was one person moving both cars. Both cars are never captured moving at the same time. It's always one at a time. One person could have moved one car, jogged back to the other, and then moved that one as well. A search of Sarah's car didn't unearth many clues, and it didn't help locate Sarah's cell phone, either. That would turn up a few days later. It was found in a Calgary park not far

from Sarah's home. In the evening, the day after Sarah's body had been found. A man visiting friends in the city had found it lying under a tree. It looked almost new because the plastic protective sheet was still on the back. He gave the phone to his friend Heather, who lived in Calgary, so she could find the owner when he had to go back home. When Heather finally got the phone to charge enough to turn on and try and figure out who the owner was, she saw the name Talia. The name had been on the Amber Alert and in the news, so Heather was taken aback seeing this uncommon name with its distinctive spelling, T-A-L-I-Y-A-H. Other names in the contact lists of the phone also sounded familiar, like Colin,

the name of Talia's dad, who had also been named on the news. Heather saw a number listed under Work and looked it up. It was to the Chili's Grill and Bar at the airport. That detail had also been on the news about Sarah's murder and Talia's disappearance. Heather turned the phone over to the police. The phone was, of course, Sarah Bailey's phone, but it wasn't terribly helpful to the investigation. Except for the contacts, the phone was nearly empty. They could not tell if it had been factory reset or if it was a new phone. There were no text or voicemail messages. When the police looked at Sarah's phone records, they discovered there were text messages sent the day after she was found dead that were not

on the phone. They were short code messages. You know, those five-digit numbers that send you reminders for appointments or bill pay. The fact that her phone received these text messages does not necessarily indicate the phone was in use, but it doesn't exclude the possibility either. On July 13th, Talia's Amber Alert was on its second day and Sarah's body was sent to autopsy. Though Sarah was badly beaten with one injury so severe it left a hole in her cheek, none of those injuries were fatal. Sarah had actually died of asphyxiation. Marks on her neck and a broken neck bone made it clear she'd been strangled. Additionally, the duct tape covering her mouth and nose had impaired her breathing, slowly suffocating her.

The medical examiner could not determine if Sarah was alive or dead when she was bent over and put in the laundry hamper head first. If she was alive, this position alone would have been fatal due to positional asphyxia, meaning her position in the hamper would have prevented her from breathing adequately. Sarah did not stand a chance. Sergeant Jody Arns, an expert in fingerprints, attended the autopsy to preserve the integrity of a vital piece of evidence, the duct tape used to bind her. On the sticky side of the duct tape, Sergeant Arns found three partial prints. They were all found near the edge where the tape had been torn, which was exactly where she'd expected to find it. Now she just needed to match it.

Meanwhile, investigators were getting a clearer picture of the person they were looking for. They were looking for a stocky black man who knew Sarah and who possibly had ill feelings towards her, enough to beat then strangle her. The man had also owned or had access to a gray dodge charger. It wouldn't take long to find a man who fit this profile. His name was Edward Downey and he was the boyfriend of Sarah's best friend, the one who worked in Talia's daycare and alerted the family that the pair were missing. I will call this friend Anne because her name is under a publication ban. Anne was 29 years old and had been dating the suspect 46-year-old Edward Downey for about two years. The two lived together. Sarah actually knew Edward before he started

dating her best friend, but mostly just in passing. But when he and Anne started dating, they spent more time together. In the two years of Anne's relationship with Edward, she supported them both as well as her son from a previous relationship. Edward did not have a job or at least not a legal one. He had previous convictions for drug trafficking, as well as prostitution-related charges relating to a girlfriend he had who was a sex worker. He also had gang connections back in Nova Scotia where he was from. From time to time, Edward worked as a drug dealer. In 2016, money was tight for Edward and Anne. Edward told her that he knew how she could make some easy money. He had done this before with other girlfriends. They just had

to put an ad on the adult services section of Backpage, a classified listing site offering her services as an escort. Initially, Anne agreed. She had a son to support after all. Edward arranged for them to go away for the weekend to Edmonton, the city that's about three hours away from Calgary. Anne met with the first client there but she couldn't go through with it. They returned to Calgary without any money. Edward would later say that it was Anne's decision on whether or not to do it and he wasn't angry when she couldn't go through with it. But text messages he sent at this time told a different story. A man named E.J. who Sarah used to date when she was in her early 20s texted Edward that he had three women working for him. Edward

replied with his own status in that area saying that he was down to quote, one bitch and she's square. He also wrote that Anne was all down until she started hanging out with quote, that white one you had referring to the fact that Sarah who was white and E.J. used to date. It was clear that Edward blamed Sarah for Anne not wanting to engage in sex work but this wasn't the only time that Sarah in Edward's view interfered with their relationship. A month before Sarah's murder Sarah and Anne were out at a nightclub. Edward was angry at Anne for what he considered disrespecting him and he punched her in the face in front of Sarah. Sarah was scared for her friend and she went to Anne's family to tell them what had happened.

She hoped they would be able to support Anne in getting away from Edward. On July the 2nd just over a week before Sarah's murder she was out again with Anne. Edward was angry about this and he texted Anne calling Sarah a quote disrespectful pot and horn dog. He then said Sarah was bad and threatened Anne with a repeat of the violence that Sarah had witnessed previously. Anne attempted to take Sarah's advice and break things off with Edward. The home they lived in was Anne's owned by her mother but Anne paid the mortgage. She texted Edward quote, I think it's time you pack your bags I'm ending this relationship enough with all these issues I keep telling you I'm not disrespecting you.

But Edward didn't pack his bags on July the 10th. He stayed in the home that night and the next morning he dropped Anne off at work so he could use her car for the day. That car was a grey dodge charger. So Edward matched the description of the witnesses he had anger towards Sarah and he was driving a grey dodge charger on the day of the murder. That was all that was needed for the Calgary police to pick him up late at night on Wednesday July 13th. There were two avenues to pursue immediately. The first was to see if the fingerprints from the duct tape were a match to Edward and the second was to track his movements on the day of the murder through his cell phone. It would tell investigators if he was in the area of Sarah's apartment that

morning. More importantly they desperately hoped it would lead them to Talia. Sergeant Anne's the fingerprint specialist tasked with testing the duct tape compared the partial prints to Edwards. She found that two of the three partial prints were a match but to be sure she sealed her findings and sent them to her unit commander. She then had another officer do an independent study of the prints. That officer also sealed their findings and sent them to the unit commander. The findings were then compared. They were exactly the same. Two of the three prints found on the duct tape matched to Edward Downey. As for the cell phone the data was turned over to Trish Pace a crime and intelligence

analyst with the Calgary police. She looked at the cell phone tower pings to narrow down the areas that Edward was on the day Sarah was killed and Talia went missing. She mapped Edward's movements from his home to the daycare where he dropped Anne off for work. He was later in the area of Sarah's apartment the location her car was found and then back to his home. This all fit what investigators suspected but little Talia was not in any of these places. A search of Edwards home did discover two red suitcases but no other signs of Talia. At around 4 30 in the afternoon on the day Sarah and Talia went missing Edward went to a rural area outside of Calgary. While traveling there and back he exchanged a large number of texts with a

woman he was interested in dating all pinging on cell phone towers. The text conversation was a steady back and forth of flirting except for a five minute gap when Edward suddenly stopped replying before picking the conversation back up. After Trish Pace mapped the area Edward's cell phone had been in when he was outside of the city limits she looked at it more closely. She suspected that Edward had dumped Talia's body somewhere and if so it would likely be near a road with some kind of cover. Much of the search area was covered by farms and fields. She noticed an area of trees not far outside of Calgary that had access from a nearby road. She drew a red circle on the map and recommended officers look there.

On Thursday July 14th the Amber Alert was called off after three days. Tonight brings to a conclusion the Amber Alert related to young Talia Marsman. We are very saddened to be announcing today that we believe we have found the body of five-year-old Talia Marsman. My sincere condolences go out to the family and friends of Talia as well as their mother who we also found deceased last Monday. Over the last 72 hours we've had approximately 100 police officers at times working around the clock with the goal of finding young Talia and unfortunately they are completely devastated by the loss as am I. As it turned out the crime analyst was spot on in her analysis.

Officers had spent the day searching the area she'd mapped out. They hadn't found anything so two officers were driving around the perimeter of Trish's marked area to plan the next day's search. As they drove by a field where there was one small grove of trees and bushes one of the officers noticed a gap in the bushes. He got out and walked up to the grove. When he was about 15 feet away he could see the body of a young child. He yelled Talia in the hope that she was still alive. She didn't respond. He went closer and could see flies by her face. He backed away from the scene so as not to contaminate it further and called in.

Talia had suffered from a number of injuries both before and after death. The five-year-old's cause of death was asphyxia though it could not be determined if she was strangled, smothered or like her mother both. She had died on July the 12th at the latest but most likely on July 11th. The day the pair had been noticed missing. The content of Talia's stomach showed she had eaten blueberry shortly before her death. A carton of blueberries was found at Edward's house. Because of the three-hour gap from when the charger was last seen on home security footage and when Edward was in the area Talia was found investigators theorized that Edward had taken Talia to his house while he decided what to do with her. Then during the five-minute gap in

his text conversation was when he moved her body from the car to the bushes. Edward Downey was formally charged with two counts of first-degree murder on Thursday July 14th after Talia's body was found. He pleaded not guilty. On July the 21st a memorial service was held for Sarah and Talia. Hundreds of people gathered to remember them telling personal stories playing videos of them and even breaking out into dance to celebrate their lives. Before the service Janet Friedett Sarah's mother and Talia's grandmother gave a statement to the media. We are of course overcome with grief by the unnecessary loss of two beautiful members of our family. Despite our grief we are also overwhelmed by the strength that this community has given us.

The Calgary Police Service, our friends and hundreds if not thousands of unknown community members have shown us how to be strong. Thank you for your support Calgary and all of Canada. Thank you. Edward remained in custody waiting for his trial which wasn't set to start for two and a half years from the time of his arrest and the trial of Edward Downey almost never happened. On Friday August 24th 2018 paramedics were called to the Calgary Raman Center. Correction staff had found Edward in medical distress shortly before 6am. He was treated at the scene and then transported to Foothills Hospital. His condition was reported as serious and potentially life-threatening. It's been widely reported that Edward had attempted to

take his own life by hanging. This was the same day he had a court appearance regarding his trial schedule. One of his lawyers had a big case coming up that he feared would interfere with the start of Edward's trial which was scheduled to begin on November the 26th 2018. This date would be 29 months from the time charges were laid and this number is incredibly important in Canadian law due to what is called the Jordan Rule. According to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms any person charged with an offence has the right to be tried within a reasonable time. In 2016 the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in R versus Jordan that there is a ceiling on reasonable time. In a case like this one 30 months is the limit. Regular listeners of the show will remember

this Jordan Rule coming into play in episode 38 the murder of Daniel Lavec and played a large part in the downgrading of the charges of the man who murdered him. Of course it's unlikely that Edward Downey's defense would have challenged how long it took to go to trial when the delay was on their side but the crown was eager to get the trial started on time and without violating the Jordan Rule. Edward spent the weekend in hospital recovering from his suicide attempt and five days later was assessed to have recovered enough for the rescheduled court appearance. The judge ruled that his trial would proceed as scheduled. Do you have a passion project that you're ready to take to the next level? Squarespace makes it easy for anyone to create an engaging web presence,

grow a brand and sell anything from your products to the content you create and even your time. When I launched this passion project six years ago I needed some kind of online hub to manage all the non-podcasting tasks that come with podcasting. I chose Squarespace because it's an all-in-one platform that seamlessly helps me achieve multiple goals. It's important to have a website that looks good and I was inspired by Squarespace's wide selection of clean and modern templates. They can be easily customized with pre-built layouts and flexible design tools to fit your needs and you can even browse the category of your business to see examples of what others have done. I use the built-in blogging tools to create a new page for each episode and there are so many intuitive

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slash ctc with offer code ctc and get your passion project off the ground today. In opening statements at the trial the crown laid out the motive that investigators had uncovered. Sarah had interfered with his relationship with Anne and his efforts to have her earn money from escort work. Little Talia knew Edward and was killed so she couldn't identify him to police. The first day of the trial outlined the movements of Sarah and Talia and the discovery of Sarah's body. Sarah's aunt the same one who made the emotional plea for Talia's return sobbed as she testified. Sarah's best friend and Edward's ex-girlfriend Anne also testified. She was a key witness because she was the link between Edward and Sarah. A screen was erected

in the courtroom between her and Edward. He could hear but not see her as she testified. The judge instructed the jury that the screen was not an indication of Edward's guilt. Anne spoke of the abuse in the relationship and how Edward tried to make her work as an escort. She also testified about how Edward didn't like Sarah and blamed her for the problems in their relationship. The crown also asked Anne about Sarah's views on sex work. Anne testified that Sarah would never do it herself and she even broke up with a previous boyfriend who suggested it to her. Under cross-examination Anne was asked about Sarah's apartment. Edward Downey's defense lawyer asked if the apartment was too expensive for Sarah who made only $1,600 a month. Anne

responded that it was. On the third day of the trial retired couple Douglas and Sherry Jessen gave their testimony about what they saw the day of the murders. When Douglas testified that Talia appeared to have been crying when he saw her walking between cars with Edward the family of Sarah and Talia in the gallery sobbed. This trial was incredibly taxing on them and there was heavy crying every day. When the officer who found Talia's body testified multiple friends and family left the courtroom. Many of them waited outside on the days the medical examiner testified and autopsy photographs were shown. Hearing and seeing the details of the brutal murders was just too much. The fingerprint and cell phone evidence was also admitted to the court and Edward's defense

team did little to contradict it and that's because they weren't disputing many of the facts. The Crown's case was a strong circumstantial case and it had digital forensics to back it up. So when the defense began they didn't dispute the fingerprints or the cell phone data instead they attempted to explain them away. Edward's lawyer Gavin Walsh first made a brief statement. He said that the jury had heard some of the most difficult evidence and now it was Edward's turn to address it. He said he believed his cross examination of the witnesses helped show some holes in the Crown's case. His lawyer then admitted that Edward was at Sarah's house on the day of the murders as the cell phone evidence showed but he was not there alone. Moreover when Edward left

the home he saw Talia. She was alive and well in her bedroom he said. Edward was called to the stand to testify in his own defense. Through questioning Edward talked about his background how he was one of nine kids and had five children of his own. He admitted to his criminal record for the most part but he said the prostitution related charges were not because he was a pimp. He testified that he lived with a woman who was a sex worker and they maintained joint funds which meant he profited from her work. In 2008 he received a four-year sentence for drug trafficking and a firearms offense and was released on parole in 2010. Edward attempted legitimate careers after he was released. He was a truck driver for a while then he and a girlfriend ran a tanning salon for

about a year but when money became tight he turned back to selling drugs. Edward was asked about his relationship with Anne. The Crown had told the jury that he most likely killed Sarah because Anne broke up with him. Edward's testimony was designed to undermine this motive. Edward denied that he tried to coerce Anne into working as an escort and that he wasn't angry when she couldn't go through with it. He alleged that their relationship went bad because Anne drank too much and that the pair talked about splitting up for a year before the murders. When asked about the incident at the nightclub where Sarah witnessed Edward punching Anne for disrespecting him he admitted that he smacked her while he was sitting behind the wheel of her car

because she was drunk and about to drive. After that the couple remained together and that argument did not continue. Edward's defense then showed text messages between Edward and other people where he talked about moving away from Calgary. Paired with the text Edward was sending another woman he was romantically interested in the defense painted the picture of a man who wasn't all that upset about the impending breakup with Anne and the text Anne sent telling him to pack his bags wasn't actually the end of the relationship. He continued to stay in her home for more than a week right up until his arrest two days after the murders. The questioning turned to the events of July 11th the day Sarah and Talia went missing.

Edward was going to explain his documented movements on that day. He said that the first thing he did that morning was drop Anne off at the daycare where she worked at 8 a.m. Then he drove to Tim Hortons to meet a friend named Terrence. Edward said he'd known Terrence for about a decade and he was also a drug dealer. Terrence had arrived with a friend who Edward didn't know and couldn't remember the name of. After about 30 minutes the conversation turned to drugs. Edward needed some cocaine and Terrence had a large amount so they agreed to meet up at Sarah Bailey's house to complete the deal. Edward drove Anne's gray dodge charger over there and parked on a side street because he said there usually wasn't a lot of parking in front of Sarah's

apartment. Terrence and his friend were in Terrence's Mercedes and they parked on a different side street. According to Edward the three knocked on the door and Sarah let them in. Sarah then put Talia in her bedroom and closed the door and then she and Terrence went into a back room alone to talk. Edward and Terrence's unnamed friend sat in the living room. After a little while Edward said he went to the room that Terrence and Sarah were in and asked what was happening with the drug exchange. Terrence then went to the utility room of Sarah's apartment and pulled out about four kilos of cocaine. Edward estimated that this amount would have been worth around $200,000 but Edward was looking for a much smaller amount than that. He only wanted an ounce.

They haggled on the price for a bit and then agreed to meet up later where they could weigh it out. Terrence went back into the room with Sarah and Edward said he decided to take Terrence's Mercedes for a drive around the block so he could listen to the stereo. When he returned to the apartment he said he heard Terrence and Sarah fighting. He called into the room asking if they were okay and they said they were. Edward then sat in the living room with Terrence's friend again. He said suddenly Terrence yelled out for the tape and Terrence's friend handed Edward a roll of duct tape. Edward ripped off a piece about 18 inches long and handed it through the door to Terrence. Then Terrence asked for the whole roll of tape so Edward handed it over. He testified

that at this point Sarah was still alive. Edward's lawyer asked what he thought about the request for the tape and Edward replied that he just thought Terrence wanted tape. Edward said after handing Terrence the tape he left the apartment again and went back to Ann's house to get money for the drug deal. He took Terrence's car so he could listen to the stereo again. He said he was home long enough to eat a snack, send some emails and play a video game. According to Edward by the time he returned to Sarah's apartment at around one or two in the afternoon Terrence and his friend were outside standing near Sarah's car. Edward gave Terrence the keys to his Mercedes back and they parted ways with plans to meet up later to exchange the drugs.

Edward said he attempted to follow Terrence to the spot that they arranged the drug deal to happen but he lost him at some point. So Edward decided to turn around and go to a spot he knew Terrence had stashed drugs in the past. This stash spot was broadly in the area that Talia's body was found. The implication was that this was the reason why the cell phone data put him in that area. When Edward noticed how late it was getting he said he turned around and picked Ann up at work rather than looking for the drug stash. Ann got into the car and told him that she couldn't get in touch with Sarah that day and that she was worried. They drove by Sarah's house and saw the police in that area. Edward dropped Ann off at the apartment and took her son to a nearby park to play.

This was before Sarah's body had been found. After a little while he said he picked Ann up and then they went home. When there Ann got a call from Sarah's family to go back to the apartment and Edward claimed that that was the first time he knew that anything bad had happened. Edward's lawyer asked him outright if he killed Sarah Bailey. He denied it. He was then asked if he knew who killed her. He said he thought he knew but he didn't witness it. Then he was asked if he killed Talia Marsman. Edward denied that too and from the gallery her father Colin Marsman yelled fuck you you piece of shit before storming out of the courtroom. It was then time for the cross-examination. The crown presented Edward with the text messages

he sent that sounded like he was angry that Ann wouldn't work as an escort and also those where he made it sound like he was blaming Sarah for it. Edward's response was that he wasn't sure what he meant by those texts but he did think Sarah encouraged Ann to drink too much. The crown also questioned Edward on more evidence. Cell phone pings from the night before the murders showed that a car Edward was driving went past Sarah's neighborhood that night for no apparent reason. Edward denied it saying he happened to be in the area selling cocaine but the crown intimated he was casing her home making sure her car was out the front. They were establishing that the murder was premeditated. The crown also pointed out the discrepancies in Edward's story.

The area he claimed he drove to looking for the drug stash was near where Talia's body was found but it wasn't near enough to have pinged on those applicable cell towers. Also Edward said he went to Sarah's house to complete a drug deal yet had to go home to get money. Why didn't he bring the money with him already? Additionally the cell phone data did not align with his timeline of leaving and then returning at that time. But probably the most damning contradiction was Edward's story of ripping one piece of duct tape. That explained his fingerprints on one of the pieces but his fingerprints were actually found on the sticky side of two separate pieces of duct tape and what of Terrence the alternative suspect in this case? The man whose Mercedes Edward said

he was driving around. Investigators believe he never existed. Edward claimed to have known him for a decade or more yet Terrence was nowhere to be found in Edward's cell phone contacts. Edward said he didn't have Terrence's phone number and he didn't even think Terrence was his legal name. Edward had no way to contact Terrence and the police were never able to find him. The crown also asked Edward about his finances which were incredibly tight. They produced texts where Edward asked to borrow money from people. There was another text from his sister asking for $20 and Edward replying that he didn't have the money to lend. This contradicted his earliest statements that he was making money through drug dealing. It showed he wouldn't have been able to

afford to move out of Anne's house if she enforced the breakup. His home, car and everything else was dependent on Anne. The crown said that if Edward didn't have $20 to loan to his sister then how did he have money for the drug deal with the mysterious Terrence? Edward was the only witness for the defense. After he left the stand the defense rested. No witnesses were presented to corroborate any part of Edward's story or to support the existence of Terrence. On December 17th 2018 the jury heard closing arguments. Edward's defense lawyer Gavin Walsh told the jury that there were still enough questions in the crown's case to raise reasonable doubt. One of the big questions was that DNA was found on the duct tape. Three male profiles were

found, one of which was Edwards. His defense lawyer said that this was consistent with his story, that there were three people who held the tape that day, him, Terrence and Terrence's unnamed friend. The other question was the motive. The defense said Edward was already talking to a new love interest on the day of the murder and Anne did not actually kick him out of the house even though she told him to pack his bags and a text. And lastly Edward may not have liked Sarah but he had no reason to want her dead. Prosecutor Carla McPhail went over the graphic details of the murders in her closing statement. She said that Edward killed Sarah because he hated her and he then murdered Talia because she was a witness. She said the murders were deliberate

and that Edward's story was absurd. Terrence never existed. The proof was in the fingerprints on the two separate pieces of tape and Edward's cell phone being used to accurately lead police to the location of Talia's body. The DNA evidence on the duct tape would have come from any man who touched the roll of tape at any time in the past. Justice Beth Hughes then gave instructions to the jury. She reminded them that they had to weigh the testimony Edward gave the same as any other testimony and that it was not Edward's responsibility to prove himself innocent. It was the crown's job to prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. She also said that while emotive may be relevant it was not needed to convict Edward. It took the jury three hours

to come back with a verdict on Wednesday December 19th 2018. For the first degree murders of Sarah Bailey and Talia Marsman Edward was found guilty. He reportedly showed no emotion when the verdicts were read. Outside the courthouse Sarah's mother Janet Friedett read a prepared statement to the media. Around her you can see family members have their hands on her in support. It has been a long two and a half years to get to this moment in time. We are most pleased with the outcome of the trial and we are certain justice will be served following this verdict. Now I can go home and bury Sarah and Talia's ashes and forever let them rest in peace. Our hope is that in time and little by little this powerful love we feel for the girls will

gradually take up more and more space in our minds each and every day. The pictures and sounds of the happier times will settle on us and drive out the darkness that has become part of our daily lives to the most recent past. Sarah died trying to help her friend out of a bad situation. She is a hero. Sarah's death has ensured that no other individual will be harmed by Mr Downey. Thank you. A first degree murder conviction has an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years. The judge had the option to sentence Edward Downey to concurrent sentences, meaning he'd be eligible for parole in 25 years. Or she could sentence him to consecutive terms,

meaning Edward would have to spend 50 years in prison before applying for parole. 11 of the 12 jurors recommended the 50-year parole ineligibility. Edward's sentencing hearing was held on March the 8th, 2019. Family members gave victim impact statements that spoke about the love they had for Sarah and Talia and the burden of knowing that the two died alone and afraid. Sarah's mother and Talia's grandmother, Janet Friedad, wrote a statement that was read out, saying she can't close her eyes without imagining her daughter fighting for her life. Quote, I live on, but the three entwined lives that were Sarah, Talia, and me are gone. Sarah's aunt and uncle also gave statements. Remember, they were the first ones

to be called to the apartment and were there when Sarah's body was found in the hamper. Marilyn Hamilton said that Edward Downey didn't have the right to decide that the lives of Sarah and Talia didn't matter. Her husband, Scott, said the family had been robbed of joyful moments that will never happen. Talia starting grade one, dance recitals, sports events, and of course, birthdays. Quote, did Talia know that Mr Downey had murdered her mom? Was she missing her mom? Was she crying out for her auntie Marilyn? Was she crying out for her grandma? He asked the judge to sentence Edward to 50 years to life so that their family would never have to sit through a parole hearing. The crown prosecutor requested Edward be sentenced consecutively

for both murders. She pointed out that after Edward had killed Sarah, he took Talia from the home alive. He had a period of cooling off while he decided what to do next, and what he decided was to kill the child. The break between the murders supported the consecutive sentencing. Edward's lawyer argued for concurrent sentencing, meaning Edward would serve both sentences at the same time. He did not concede that there was a cooling off period and said that the crimes were one transaction. He also pointed to Edward's criminal record, which was free from violent offences. A 25 to life sentence would give Edward hope of release while a 50-year non-parole period would mean he wouldn't be eligible for parole until he was in his 90s. In Canada, it is established

case law that the court cannot hand down a sentence that effectively removes all hope of rehabilitation through unduly long sentences. As we saw in the Alfred Vuzo case, a 50-year sentence given to a man in his 40s would remove all hope of eventual release. However, in this case, it could also be argued that this would not be an unduly long sentence in light of the brutality of these murders. At the time of recording, we were still waiting on sentencing. I'll update you as soon as we know more. Thanks for listening. This episode was researched and written by Charlie Warrell from Impact Statement and Crime Lines. When writing these episodes, often court documents are available to users' research, but when they're not, we rely on detailed court reporting to get

the details needed to write the story. For this case, I want to thank Megan Grant from CBC in Calgary and, of course, Nancy Hicks from Global News in Calgary. Nancy also has a new podcast that's making huge waves here in Canada called Crime Beat. I played a promo a few episodes ago, but if you haven't checked it out, you should. She's a crime journalist who takes you through her own experiences reporting on different local Calgary cases, using lots of audio clips and narration. I love the insight that I get from an insider's perspective. It's called Crime Beat. Definitely check it out. My patrons heard this episode three days early and without the ads. Now you can too for just $2 a month. It's easy to sign up at Patreon.com. Just look for Canadian

True Crime. You can find all the ways to support me at CanadianTrueCrime.ca. You'll also find a form on the website to submit a case that you would like to see covered. This week's podcast recommendation is one of my favourites. It's called Unresolved and the latest episode is actually a Canadian story that you won't want to miss. My name is Michael Whelan and I am the host of a podcast called Unresolved. In 2015, before the True Crime podcasting wave really kicked off, I wanted to start a show that focused on not only the gory details, but the human stories at the centre of every mystery. Because for every unsolved murder or baffling experience, there are multiple lives left without an answer. Since I started the podcast, I have tried to

focus on unfinished stories, both big and small, to try and figure out why and how some of us are left without any resolution. I'm interested in learning about these unknown aspects of life, and I hope that you are too. Check out my podcast, Unresolved, on your podcast app of choice, or just stop by the show's website, unresolved.me, to learn more. Austin Z. This episode of Canadian True Crime was written and researched by Charlie Warrell, and audio production was by Eric Crosby and me. The host of the Beyond Bazaar True Crime podcast voiced the disclaimer, and the Canadian True Crime intro song was written by We Talk of Dreams. I'll be back soon with another Canadian True Crime story. See you then.